As half of the Toronto underground house duo ”StretchandHooker", I enjoyed a front row seat for the rise of dance music in North America. 
I started my rave career selling glowsticks and mixtapes at X-Static booths followed by Herbal E booths at parties in 1994. I joined a group of friends and we started throwing parties in Toronto  under "Dose Productions"(Dose was a T shirt company that Stretch and his partner Chris had created and were selling out of Chris's van at parties). 

Once exposed to the music the wanting to collect house/techno/breaks records was quickly followed by the need to DJ.
Sometime early in 1994 on High St in Barrie, sitting on my living room couch, facing the turntables/speakers blaring from across the room and the TV on in the opposite corner, I suddenly had my Dirk Diggler moment, my future DJ name flashed in front of me…..DJ Hooker. 

As the rave scene grew so did the opportunities as my partners  Steve, Aaron, Rob and Tyler and I went on to produce all LifeForce Industries, Dose, Syrous and Renegades events as well as being co owners of Turbo niteclub. (Jason and Ashley for the first LF event) 

Playing as a resident DJ for Dose parties led to residencies at some of Toronto’s staple underground clubs, System soundbar, Turbo niteclub, Element along with events ranging from 50 person Warehouse jams up to 18,000 person mega raves. 

 At first Steve and I put our DJ names together( StretchandHooker)so that we would only take up one DJ slot at Dose parties.This turned out to be a blessing for me because the Stretch before the Hooker masked some of the rediculousness of the name. 

 Over the last few years i have been able to replace and update some equipment while slowly dig through my vinyl and organize my digital collection. These mixes are a collage of genres, bringing a familiar sound together with current House/Breaks/Techno that will include the usual dose of crackles, glitches and nudges that come with live recordings, snapshot of that day for me.  Give it a listen.
Wayne
#house #breaks #techno #acid #toronto #rave #raver #nightlife #torontonightlife #ravehistory #dose #syrous #renegades #lifeforce #stretchandhooker #wayno #downloadorimplode #nightmaresonwax

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